CB4 and the near future ...

Didn’t know what else to call this post ... so ... ‘CB4 and the near future’ it is. Regarding the (previous) ‘Antonio Davis on Vince’ post ... I wrote this at the same time, deciding as I did that it was two different posts.

There’s obviously no parallel from ‘Vince’s graduation decision’ at all to today’s team ... and I’m sure there never will be here or anywhere else, but I can’t help but wonder about that stretch of games before the All Star break when it started to look like ... just maybe ... we might have the beginnings of something serious going on ... if (and it’s a big ‘if’, I know, but ... ) ... if they continued to grow and get better - as opposed to the apparent turn they’ve taken since then, going the other way, up until around now at least - and after playing through a competitive playoff series or two (??), if Turkoglu was inspired to hit the gym hard this summer, along with Bargnani and DeRozan (who, I’m convinced is going to be a star - maybe a very big star) ... and of course, if Chris signed on to stay, which would’ve been (would be) a HUGE signal to the rest of the team (and league) that ‘we’re getting serious about building a contender here’ ... well, there’s just no telling what could be ... or could’ve been.

A lot of ‘ifs’ above, I know ... but, that spark or momentum, if that’s what it was - before the break - was real, I at least, believed. And ... while it’s never over ‘til it’s over ... if LeBron DID get into Bosh’s head during the break in Dallas (my own pet theory - though I wasn’t the first to say it; one or two other posters mentioned a similar scenario after the Golden State game), the surprise to me there is that Bosh would be that ... persuade-able. Although, a bit less surprised as I think about it and really ponder. On one hand, it’s easy to imagine LeBron’s pitch (again, IF any of this took place) ... painting the picture of the two of them racking up championships in the Big Apple (where else?), going into the Hall of Fame as one of the great duos in NBA history ... it would be seductive, to say the least. But, on the other hand ... Chris Bosh has always been his own man and pointedly so, even. So, from that perspective, the whole thing about Bosh giving off unconscious signals that he’s out of here (if he actually is and he knows it, I say only to be fair) surprises the hell out of me.

I also acknowledge that it’s not impossible that what we’re seeing is that Bosh is so deeply conflicted at this moment (whether he’s consciously ‘decided’ or not ... at the VERY least, he’s deeply conflicted at the moment - a blind man could see it) - because even though we’ve not won anything with him here, he’s had to have enjoyed all the years spent in Toronto, growing into the ‘big dog’ that he is ... and he’s also likely aware - as many of us are, I’m sure - that if he signed on to stay, he’d absolutely own this town for years to come ... and it would be among the biggest boosts of all time to the team, really knowing just what their focus was: to get good enough to get to the big dance, that is (of course), the finals ... and having that kind of focus makes alll the difference in the world.

As I write this, I wonder to myself if I’m not ‘pitching’ Chris from the side door over here, thinking that (who knows?) maybe he reads these kinds of things (he doesn’t watch TV and he is a voracious reader ... and he knows his way around the internet - wouldn’t you be interested in what people were saying about you?) or more likely, that someone else reads it and picks up the ball, so to speak, expanding on the sentiment ... and yes, I am a hopeless T Honker, ridiculously so I admit ... but I really ... really ... really ... don’t want him to leave. Not that what I want is going to make any kind of a difference. (My ass may be dumb, but I ain’t no dumb-ass - as Ordell Robbie once said).

But unless he already signed his name in blood combined with LeBron’s on a piece of hotel stationary in Dallas ... and while he wouldn’t have done that, his handshake and his ‘word’ to LeBron would be very close to ‘as good as’, most of us know ... I’ll still hold out some tiny bit of hope that the switch flips the other way between now and the end of the season ... and he seriously weighs up just what it is that he’d be giving up on, here.

It’s not the Big Apple ... but having lived there for spells - I know New York City and love the goddam place - this town is getting better all the time ... and as far as I’m concerned, Toronto doesn’t take a back seat to anywhere that I’ve been. I don’t have to live here, I choose to live here. And I really hope CB4 ends up doing the same.

If you want more fodder for the LBJ spiel to CB...it is open knowledge that James wants to be more than a basketball star (CB has displayed such notions as well). But his star will revolve around Bball. If there was in fact a pitch to CB (and Iam not inclined to this) it would have to be some promise of inclusion into all those side activities/available monies from China to Russia which LBJ and his homies aspire to. The basketball $$ will be chickenfeed in the storyline. The question then becomes, will CB4 feel inspired and accept that what LBJ says shall be delivered....and this need not happen in NY either.

you know, it's funny. When I try to myself in Bosh's position and see how I would handle this situation, I really don't know what I would do... I really don't.

Lets weigh in both sides here.

If I stay, not only the whole city but the whole country would love me. I break all the franchise records. There will be doubt that I will retire my jersey T.O. And I will own the basketball advertisement in Canada.

But if I stay, everyone in U.S would hate me, and think of me as a traitor. I won't nearly be as well known in the U.S and get as much media attention. There will be next to zero chance of winning a championship in T.O. And, after a while, fans in T.O will even forget that I sacrificed everything to stay...

Now on the flip side, if I book it, and go play for a already really good team, or team up with someone like Wade or LBJ, I have a really good chance of winning a championship several times. I will get all the media attention I deserve. I might even make it into the hall of fame, as one of the best duos in the NBA history. Best of all, I don't have to listen to Matt Devlin's "oh nooo" statement every 10 mins... or watch Bargs going for rebounds every game...

But if I book it, everyone in Canada will hate me. There will be no chance of retiring me jersey. I will become a second banana, and won't own my team. There is a chance the move does not work out, and I will be hated both in canada and my new city...

I mean I really understand his dilemma here, he has a very tough decision ahead of him...When he says he doesn't know what he is going to do, I actually believe him.

I don't think Miami makes any sense. They will have no cash to build a team around Wade and Bosh. No Heat fans I know have proposed a reasonable roster. JO is not going to sign for chicken scratch, he will command the MLE. PG/SF/C are still three important positions, and you need average guys at least for them to have a contender. You also need a bench..

My first choice would be Chicago. Miami doesn't have anyone to feed CB the ball.

Dwyane Wade?

Ripp wrote:

I don't think Miami makes any sense. They will have no cash to build a team around Wade and Bosh. No Heat fans I know have proposed a reasonable roster. JO is not going to sign for chicken scratch, he will command the MLE. PG/SF/C are still three important positions, and you need average guys at least for them to have a contender. You also need a bench..

Second round and exit team, imo.

Wade + Bosh will be the best 1-2 punch in the league and they'll be together for the next 5-8 years. They are so good that they single handedly provide a core to a title contender. They'll have plenty of opportunities to win a title.

Miami keeps Mario Chalmers. That's their starting point guard. Uses their mid first round draft pick + Miami will probably get Toronto's mid first round pick to select two other rotation players. Has Joel Anthony as the fourth big in their rotation. Has Daequan Cook as their primary backup wing.

That is six/seven players off of Miami's top 9/10 players.

Miami still has $4-5 million left in cap space. They can use that to try and retain either Udonis Haslem or Jermaine O'Neal or to pursue another FA big man (Amir?). A few more minimum contract signings to flesh out their depth at the reserve guard, wing and big men spots.

Their supporting cast will likely be a little light (unless they hit home runs in the draft) but serviceable in year one. By year two it'll be strong and title worthy after they use another draft pick + spend their MLE + LLE to add further talent.

Saw that the title of this post was still on the list showing on the Raptors Republic home page ... and a part of me was ... embarrassed, really ... ‘cause I remembered what I’d written.

If I can take it all back, I take it all back.

I don’t have much else in me to say other than what I said in last night’s Roll Call (comment 17). But maybe I should stand up and answer for what-all I said at the top. First off, I was wrong - way wrong - to imagine that there might be a tiny sliver of light still there in regards to the possibility that Bosh still might want to be a Raptor. I saw it last week - my first actual acknowledgement of it to myself, at least - during the Golden State game, that he no longer wanted to be on the team. And other than that last shot against Atlanta the other night, there hasn’t been a moment since that told me anything otherwise. But ... I still hoped. Which might be one of the actual definitions of FAQ’s Tribal Honker term.

I went to the game last night ... and while there’s no reason to flog a dead horse here and I’ll try not to ... it was ... shockingly clear, enough so that I knew I could never un-know it or pretend that it wasn’t so, that the energy of the team that was once there - and not so long ago (pre-A.S. break), is on a constant drain ... and it’s draining out in torrents right through the void of the man that was Chris Bosh. Almost like he’s a black hole in space. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Whatever anyone says about it being ok or understandable for Bosh to have given up and want out ... you're entitled to your opinion, but I say ... NO! It’s not alright. Because this tragic turn of events - and for Raptors fans such as myself, it is nothing less than tragic, I’m sorry - began and will sadly end, with Bosh deciding during the All Star break - and I have NO doubt it was then, none-nada-don’t-even-say-it-to-me-please if you think otherwise - that he was leaving. The players that he has spent the last six months with undoubtedly knew it the moment he walked back into the locker room ... it just took some of us watching a few games with him back on the floor to see what they saw. Any moments of half-decent play that we saw from the team before Bosh actually came back from his injury, were just moments of them sucking it up for a breath here and there, ‘cause ... they already knew what we hadn’t yet seen for ourselves: It was over.